A big boost for the UTG

The recent signing of the US$5 million third financing agreement, for completion of the new campus of the University of the Gambia, with the OPEC Fund for International Development, by the Minister of Finance, Mambury Njie, is a move in the right direction.

The coming of the University of the Gambia during the second Republic is a blessing for the country.

Before the advent of the University, many Gambians found it extremely difficult to send their children to pursue their university education overseas.

It was only the rich who had the financial means to do so.

The poor found it hard, and still find it hard, to meet the cost of a university education for their children.

However, thanks to the university now at their doorstep, the struggle to go abroad for higher education is a thing of the past in the Gambia.

Indeed, now an ordinary person who has the requirements can be admitted at the University, on a scholarship available from local sponsors, be they institutions or individual philanthropists.

Today the country is proud to produce graduates from our own University, who are contributing positively towards the socio- economic development of the nation, and these are the people who are helping in moving the country forward.

We would like to commend the government of the Gambia for the support being  given  to the University, since its inception.

Meanwhile, the university campus project, when completed, will ease the movement of students from one campus to the other, because most of them will stay in the main campus at Faraba Banta, and this will enable them to concentrate better on their studies.

We also urged Gambian intellectuals overseas to support our young university.

Let them come as visiting lecturers or even permanently to serve their country.

We believe the government has a duty to create the enabling environment for this to happen.

Higher education is an avenue to rapid development.

 Therefore, let us all join hands so that we can all contribute our quota to national development.

It is now clear that the University is here to stay, and is for both Gambians and non Gambians to play their part toward the development of our highest tertiary institution.